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Sorry to be pedantic, but making 5 subs when only a maximum of 1 minute will be allocated would actually encourage time-wasting, not the other way around! But I do agree that teams should be allowed to use the full (5/7) subs at their disposal, if they want to.

I love he kicks the ball in front of him, and runs after it like a man possessed, absolutely clattering anyone in his way. He is an amazing player, indeed his work rate and energy are his best attributes, but he's also a very clever player, very quick, very strong (deceptively so for his size) and very good technically good.

Doesn't sound like Lampard is too happy :(

The bit that really got me was when City scored in the first couple of minutes, all you could hear was Carefree roaring out of the stadium, absolutely incredible.

Bizarrely last night I felt fairly comfortable after the (hideous, and very stressful) first 20 minutes. I was more anxious about whether or not we would get a winner, than I was nervous about conceding.

I think it was 8 months, but that included the summer break (edit) and possibly a spell on the sidelines through injury

Damn, as much as I love Luiz this is the exact kind of time his rashness will cost us (just indirectly this time) We've had three clean sheets in a row, and I believe despite a couple of mistakes against Newcastle, he had a big part to play in that, and was especially solid against Valencia. He's going to be a huge loss for us, and it could potentially also result in a huge loss for us at right back too. I guess you have to ask which will be the bigger risk - Ferreira, Bosingwa, or Alex? I'd be tempted by Paulo for this one but as others have said, the lack of match fitness could prove costly. Romeu absolutely has to start this one, no question of that. In fact I think our entire midfield and front 3 will remain the same from Tuesday's game vs Valencia. Maybe switching Lampard in for Miereles, but why mess with something that worked so well?

Dont really have any feelings on this either way, only really care for Chelsea and is doing well, but it's kinda funny considering the United fans at work were saying that Valencia were going to knock us out, heh :) Must suck for City tonight, to win and still not make it through to the knockouts.

Zola, not sure if it was you or just copied from another site, but I think the title is quite misleading! It sounds incredibly negative, like he's attacking Chelsea almost, but in reality he's offering a very reasonable opinion on what he sees as a potential long term positive, and is saying what many people on here are already thinking. Love Frank LeBouef, loved seeing him at the stadium last month and it was nice to see him outside with lots of fans too, having photos taken etc - Chelsea legend without a doubt

Lol, my girlfriend cannot stand Anelka, but that's almost based exclusively on his terribly lackluster penalties :D Our best penalty taker, bizarrely, is Kalou.

I'm having very mixed feelings about this. I have every faith in Luiz and JT, but eith Ivanovic being by far our best option at right back, who's going to cover at CB? Next week against City will we go with Ferreira/Bosingwa at right back and drop Ivanovic into CB again? What if, god forbid, JT or Ivanovic then get sent off or injured? Two CBs and 1 CB/RB is not nearly enough. Lots of people taking about Cahill as if it's a done deal but I'm sceptical about that, and whether he's actually a huge step up from Alex anyway considering the cost (I know his age and nationality bump this up btw) Also, Anelka has been great for us this season I think, and in particular really changed the game for us against Leverkusen. He's a very clever player, still has brilliant pace and incredibly quick feet. Both players will be a loss, and in particular I find the idea to make them train separately utterly baffling. It could really cost us on Monday.

I always rated Mikel, but for the past year or so, this season in particular, I'm really struggling to see any positives in his game. He's very slow, he plays with his head down, has very little awareness, vision, technique or anything else. His positional sense is good at times, but simply isn't enough when he's as immobile as he is.

Just a random musing from my post in the Torres thread, and I'll start out by saying I think AVB has an incredible track record and he (still) has my full support as manager, but I'm starting to become quite worried by how inconsistent our team selection is every week. In defence we could line up with Bosingwa or Ivanovic at right back, then two from Alex, Ivanovic, Terry or Luiz in the middle. In midfield, basically take your pick at random from Lampard, Ramires, Malouda, Miereles, Mikel, Romeu etc. Then the front three? Malouda, Mata, Sturridge, Torres, Drogba, Anelka etc... every week our team changes quite drastically from the previous game. Look at Newcastle, they're massively over-achieving this season, their back 5 have played every single game together so far this season and look incredibly solid as a result. Personally I think it's time that AVB decided who should be part of our best XI and just preserve with it. Our back line needs some familiarity, and our front line needs confidence. Consistency is the best way to give it to them.

I think Roman would be fully supportive of a transitional period if AVB proposed that to him, and yet still we're seeing the exact same players being picked week after week. Our best three players yesterday by far were Bertrand, Romeu and Luiz - you could count the number of Premier League starts the three have between them on one hand. That simply isn't good enough. AVB needs to show more faith in these players.

It's easy to say with hindsight that buying Torres was a mistake, especially when compared with other transfers that have made far more impact for far less money. But in Torres we still have an absolute world class striker. The guy is class, he's just not firing quite like we all know he can. Who's fault is that? Well, mostly I'd agree with you guys that it is Torres' fault, but when played in a system with Lukaku and Malouda supporting him, then last night I actually thought he gave another decent performance. As Andreas said, against United he was our only player who offered any sort of threat, and almost got us right back into the game with an incredible run, great determination and blistering pace. Yes, I'm fully aware of what the end result was, but how many other players could do that? Last night he shows glimpses too, and for as long as he shows that we should persevere. Mata, Torres and Sturridge are our future. It's probably about time AVB realised this and stops rotating the team until we can get a little bit of consistency, and our world class striker gets his confidence back.

I cannot believe that yet again, another potentially great match for us in the Carling Cup and it's not on TV. Argh!

I only started taking note of Josh on that amazing FA Youth Cup run, in which he was a clear MOTM (understatement) in the final. It is worrying to think it's now well over a year since then, and he has been given very little game-time since then. Far less than he deserves.

Evil Drogba is evil.

I'd probably take Dos Santos too, always performs very well for Mexico. But yeah, Kevin Prince Boateng, is he even the same player as the one that played for Spurs? That goal last night... jeez

Signing Romeu and Lukaku is a good sign of things to come. Even Mata to be honest, the guy is only 23, exactly the kind of player we need, and was available for a fairly reasonable price when you consider his talent. Same price as Jordan Henderson. We have some great young talent now - McEachran, Lukaku, Bertrand, Kakuta, Courtois, Van Aanholt, Bruma, Davila, Chalobah, Clifford, Kalas, Piazon etc Then you have some great young players in the first team too - Luiz, Ramires, Mata, Sturridge. All of those players are 24 or younger, many of them are 20 or younger. Either way they could play for this club for 10 years or even more, and are no doubt classed as the future. AVB himself is still very young, but is massively talented. His track record before Chelsea is incredible and shows that he knows what he's doing. We need to have faith in him, that he can work with these young and talented players and hopefully build a dynasty for years, maybe even decades to come. I know that's highly optimistic, and also quite unlikely, but Ferguson had a very shaky couple of years at United when he started, and we're now almost 30 years on, and there's not a single person in the world that United fans would rather have at the helm.

Good god, will someone please fix dat font size! And you haven't got the time or patience for what? For a young, incredibly talented to build a team capable of going on to win the league and the Champions League? Regardless of what you say, with any manager right now we'd struggle to win those with our current squad, so change is needed. To say you haven't got the time, or patience, to sit through such a thing, seeing exciting new players come to the club, seeing the exciting young players already at the club breaking into the first team and making an impact, and go on to be a team strong enough to really challenge at the highest possible level, is frankly a bit of a joke. The whole "I want instant success and nothing else will cut" mentality is part of what's got us into this mess in the first place.

Lots of people say this, but I don't agree with it. I think he's a great defender - he's clever, has great strength, pace, awareness and most important of all has incredible energy and determination. I'd agree that he's a little impetuous at times, but if that can be worked on then he is capable of being one of the best defenders in the world. What Neville said was actually pretty much spot on about him, he does at times play like one of the central defenders would in my FIFA team, but god damn if I could control any central defender in the world, it'd be Luiz. ;)

It's actually embarrassing to see certain people listing Terry and Lampard near the top of their lists, look around at the other top clubs in the world, is that how they'd treat two of their best players from the last decade, and maybe even beyond? Terry and Lampard can both offer a lot to the team, and indeed, even with Torres, Drogba, Mata, Anelka, Sturridge, Malouda etc, Lampard is still our top scorer in the Premier League this season, and has four assists too.

It's something I never thought would happen so soon, but the more I think about this, the more I'm starting to think that if we don't progress from the CL group stages this could be it for AVB. It's sad and I'd love for him to be given longer, but I'm actually quite worried now.

Do you have a link for this please? I watched the post-match stuff on ITV and somehow missed it. And I so want it to work out for him, I think he has the right idea here, trying to get us to play better football, and his pre-Chelsea record speaks for itself. Something isn't right, quite clearly, we're not playing badly but we're still losing, which of course is far more worrying than playing badly and winning. But I still have faith in AVB. I am, like others, quite baffled at his reluctance to play youth though. Persisting with Mikel over Romeu in particular I find quite irksome, and also not playing Bertrand at left back when Cole is fit doesn't bode well either, although I must say Bosingwa wasn't bad last night.